


Honey Tongue

by laveIIans



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Adaar helps Sera deal with her issues with magic, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Eventual Happy Ending, Explicit Sexual Content, F/F, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, Jaws of Hakkon DLC, Loss of Virginity, Made For Each Other, Self Confidence Issues, Sex Magic, Sex Toys, The Descent DLC, Trespasser will be dealt with in another fic, occasional in game dialogue, so many nicknames, they help each other grow
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-15
Updated: 2017-02-26
Packaged: 2018-09-17 16:28:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9333392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laveIIans/pseuds/laveIIans
Summary: The Inquisitor was known by many names. Hissera was the name her parents gave her. The company called her Kaaras. Talan, she chose herself. To others, she was just another ‘ox woman’, among other less polite terms; sometimes whispered, sometimes not.But Sera was different. To Sera, she was her‘Inky’, her‘honey tongue’, her‘buckles’.... And to Talan, those were the names she loved the most in all of Thedas.





	1. Well, Shit

**Author's Note:**

> I just love Sera so much, as well as Qunari women. Once I read that Sera was a lesbian _AND_ has a thing for a Qunari 'quizzy ( ~~and who doesn't~~ ), I just _had_ to play through the game with that romance. And write a fic about it. 
> 
> (Notes on Qunlat and stuff at the bottom)

It was just another ordinary day for Talan Adaar in the Frostback Mountains with the Valo-kas company. Except she’d never been there before, her friends were nowhere in sight, and she’d just fallen out of the sky.

Oh, and she was the only Qunari there. Great.

She must have passed out at some point because she suddenly found herself sitting in a cell with guards pointing long, shiny swords at her throat. There wasn’t really any need – her hands were cuffed and wasn’t able to cast magic without them being loosened first – but she felt there was no reasoning with these people. Plus, they didn’t even know she was a mage in the first place.

 _The one thing everyone has in common with the Qun,_ she thought drily to herself, _is that they treated mages like a communicable disease: something you had to acknowledge from time to time of course, but much better kept out of sight and mind._

It might have been different if she had actually been born under the Qun, like her parents had been. She would have been a _saarebas_ then, with her lips stitched together and kept on a leash, literally. It still made her shudder to think of what might have been...

But life under the Tal-Vashoth had been free and easy, at least in comparison. Seeing as she’d never actually been living under the Qun, she was technically just a _Vashoth_ ; but that was a distinction nobody in her group had cared about, as plenty of them had been anyway, and one that would be meaningless to the majority of Thedas.

Talan fought back the urge to cry at the thought of them. Mercenaries _didn’t cry_. It didn’t matter that she was in an unfamiliar place, surrounded by unfamiliar people, and that she had no idea what was going on, or whether she would ever see her friends and family again....

At least the cell was spacious enough for her to stand in, although she was currently seated. The problem with most buildings in Thedas was that they were too small; they were all built for people at least a foot or two shorter than her, so she was constantly hitting her horns on the beams or scraping them against the ceiling. It stopped being funny around the thirtieth time.

Even her magic couldn’t raise the roof, so to speak. At least, she thought so. She was a pretty strong mage, able to give devastating attacks and easily defend herself and others, as well as casting healing spells fairly rapidly too. Still, warping the architecture was beyond her reach. _For now._

  
  


No sooner had she begun to wonder if anyone would come and explain what was going on when two women walked into her cell. One wore armour and carried a long sword that nearly touched the floor, while the other wore a hooded outfit with.... chainmail? Interesting.

The warrior woman walked closer to her, glaring. She was nearly as formidable as Shokrakar had been. Maybe she’d make a good _viddathari_. “Tell me why we shouldn’t kill you now,” she said, her voice nearly a growl. “The Conclave is destroyed. Everyone who attended is dead, except for you.”

Talan’s heart stopped. _Dead._ That meant Shokrakar, Katoh, Taarlok, Kaariss, both Ashaads, Sata-Kas, Hissra, Sataa, Meraad... Her ten only friends in the world would never be coming back. _Ever._ She was the last of the Valo-kas now, and she didn’t even know where she was. Would these two women let her go to arrange their funerals, maybe even attend them? _Vashedan. Vashedan, vashedan, vashedan._

“That’s... horrible,” she managed to say, begging her body to cooperate. “ _Really horrible._ ” She would not cry. She would not tremble. Fear was a weakness – it was a door left ajar, and anyone strong enough could push their way through and break it off its hinges.

Talan couldn’t stop herself from shuddering as she thought of her company. The Conclave was a blur of faces and names: a lot of them were important human figures who she didn’t know much about, and none of them were those she knew personally, like her motley band of mercenaries. She had been with them for 5 years; they’d known each other like the back of their own hands, could find each other blindfolded, had known how to bring out their strengths and compensate for their weaknesses in battle. Talan had healed them all, one by one, sometimes even as she ducked to avoid arrows. She had fought alongside them. They were all each other’s _kadan_ , trusted with things that could only be shared amongst themselves; the secret fears, longings and hopes that no outsider would ever know or be trusted with. They were all willing to die for each other.

Now they had. It did not bear thinking about.

“Explain _this_!” the warrior said, grabbing her hand and pulling it upwards roughly. Talan winced. The strength of this woman was.... intense. She was like a battering ram, only worse.

“I can’t,” Talan answered softly. She really couldn’t; she had no idea what it was, or how it had got there. Talan hadn’t even been aware of it for very long until the two women had entered.

The mark on her hand glowed green and ominously, caring nothing for how any of them felt. She hated it.

She said as much to the two women. The warrior nearly slapped her, and Talan prepared to duck, until the other woman restrained her.

“We _need_ her, Cassandra,” she said, in a voice that brook no argument.

Cassandra. A very feminine name for such a decidedly _un_ feminine woman. 

Shit. She sounded like the Ben-Hassrath now. Well, at least she could pin a name to one face now, at any rate.

“I still can’t believe that.... all those people are.... _dead_ ,” she whispered haltingly. Their faces swarmed before her – her friends, other strangers... They had all been innocent, whether elf, dwarf, human or Qunari like herself – they had just wanted peace and an end to all the fighting.

What did they get? Death, and more fighting. Some god out there had a funny sense of humour; some god she really wanted to punch in the teeth right now.

Talan bit down a scream and looked at them, square in the face. “You might think I’m guilty,” she began, “and I can’t prove otherwise if I don’t have some kind of trial. But what you need to know is I was at the Conclave to _help_ you. Your people hired my people to protect them; we were extra security. We wanted everything to go well.” She gave the barest ghost of a smile. “Even the hulking oxmen want peace from fighting once in a while, you know. Whether you’re mage, templar or just somebody trying to get on with your life, nobody wants all this chaos from a needless fight. We wanted a resolution as badly as you did.”

She shuddered and gave herself a strong mental rebuke. _Fear is a weakness, fear is a –_ “I lost people there too, you know. They weren’t just colleagues – they were friends, and something far beyond that. _Kadan_ : the human tongue doesn’t have an equivalent for it, but what’s important is that they mattered. _They didn’t need to die_.”

_Andraste’s tits, woman, don’t you dare fucking cry._

Cassandra and the other woman looked at her with pity. She wanted to slap them, scream in their faces; anything to make that look go away. She wanted to be dead at the Conclave with the rest of them. She wanted them alive, to hug and cherish and swear that they’d never do that ever again.

At that moment, she wanted nothing and everything from the world, all at the same time. Oh, how she hated it.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” said the other woman. She looked it, too. “But is there anything you remember at all about the Conclave? Anything that could explain this... situation?” She gestured to the green glow, looking uneasy.

“I think I was running in the Fade,” Talan began. “I was being chased by strange things. I don’t remember what they were, but they had... too many eyes. Then there was a woman.”

“A _woman_?” She sounded like she’d never heard of them before.

Talan fought the urge to make a sarcastic reply. “Yes, _a woman_. She reached out to me, and then... I don’t know. I was out of the Fade and my hand hurt like _hell_ , and I must have passed out.”

Cassandra sighed. “Go to the forward camp, Leliana. I’ll show her the rifts.”

Leliana? She took a brief moment of satisfaction in knowing their names without them knowing hers, but the other woman – _Leliana_ – was gone before she could properly enjoy it, closing the door behind her.

Cassandra released her from her chains but did not remove the handcuffs. Talan’s hands were beginning to feel numb, but she couldn’t complain. Neither of them understood what was going on, and the other woman had a _sword_. She could _easily_ cut her head off then and there if she got too suspicious.

_I guess I’ll just have to prove my innocence to her. Better be on my best behaviour, then._

The woman led her out of the cell, ignoring the cramps in Talan’s legs and arms. She kept a brisk stride that Talan could have easily matched and even outpaced at any other time, if her body would cooperate; this was just _embarrassing_. The bright sunlight was even worse, almost blinding her as she was taken outdoors.

“We call it the Breach,” Cassandra said, disrupting her mental complaint session. Talan had to squint at first to see it, her eyes still adjusting, but that thing.... There was a hole in the fucking sky, and it looked like it could easily engulf their surroundings. Hell, maybe even Thedas. _Shit_.

It was even glowing the same green as that mark on her hand. She only felt more confused now, and growing steadily more alarmed.

“It’s a massive rift into the world of demons that grows larger with each passing hour. It’s not the only such rift, just the largest. All were caused by the explosion at the Conclave.”

“So the Fade is leaking into the real world now? Just from an _explosion_?” she asked, hoping her voice didn’t betray her fear. This was some serious shit. If Shokrakar had been there, they would have heard a string of multilingual curses by now. Katoh might have come up with a basic plan, but most likely he would have just said his favourite word. No prizes for guessing.

“Yes,” Cassandra replied, her face growing stern again. “And if we don’t act, the Breach may grow until it swallows the world.” _I guess we’re on the same page, at least._

They watched it for a second. It expanded, but in the same way a child might add more to a sketch – it was messy, quick and uncoordinated, moving about in shuddering motions across the sky.

She screamed. The mark on her hand was burning. It felt like she’d just dipped her hand into a pot of boiling water, except that the pot was fuelled by all the fire in every corner of Thedas. Point is, it hurt. _A lot_.

Talan fell to the floor, too weak to even get angry with herself. The pain was the most intense thing she’d ever felt, and easily the worst. It felt like whatever the fuck was on her hand was coursing through her body, trying to leach its way up her arm. She couldn’t think of a single healing spell that would come even remotely close to fixing this shit.

Cassandra knelt beside her, looking oddly unsurprised, although concerned. “Each time the Breach expands, your mark spreads.” That made sense, from what she’d seen. “And it is killing you.” Wait, what? “It may be the key to stopping this, but there isn’t much time.”

Talan was terrified. Was there a way to get rid of it? If there was, Cassandra no doubt wouldn’t like it – she said they needed it, like it was valuable. Maybe it would close the Breach, but maybe it would kill her first. It certainly hurt enough to. _Great. Just... great_.

“You said it might be the key to stopping... whatever’s happening,” she said slowly, gesturing to the Breach. The woman nodded at her. “Well, how would you know? Is this just a guess?” It came out more harshly than she had intended, but Talan was scared and beyond giving a fuck. She wanted answers, and she wanted them _now_.

“We don’t know if it’s possible yet,” Cassandra admitted, “but right now it’s our only hope. And yours, if you want to survive this.”

“And do you still think I’m guilty? That I did this to myself?”

“No,” the woman said sharply. “Not intentionally. Something clearly went wrong. We’re just trying to find out how, and why.”

“So if I didn’t do it, then who did?” Nothing was making any sense right now. Talan wanted a drink. Or maybe ten.

“You’re our only suspect right now,” Cassandra reminded her. “If you really want to prove your innocence, then this is the _only_ way you can do it.”

Talan sighed. This woman had her cornered, but she was telling the truth. If the world was about to end – and it looked dangerously close – and she had a chance to save it through some strange glowing shit on her hand, then she had better take that chance and seize it by the horns. _That’s the kind of thing Shokrakar would have said_ , she thought, hiding a bitter smile. Besides, if she survived this mess, she had a better chance of finding out exactly what had happened to her friends... and then burying them afterwards.

“I understand,” she said, breathing hard to steady herself. Cassandra’s eyes were fixed on her like a hawk, practically waiting to pounce on her the moment she slipped up.

“Then what –”

“I’ll help you.” Talan looked her straight in the eyes. “I’ll do what I can to close this Breach. I’ll do whatever it takes.”

Cassandra gave her an approving look. Talan hadn’t had a great deal of other options, but this one had felt the most _right_. The woman helped her to her feet and led her onwards on their noble quest to save the world.

The handcuffs still didn’t come off yet, of course. Just in case.

  
  


She was met by more faces as they walked through the town. Unsurprisingly, there were no other Qunari. What struck her were their expressions – they all looked this close to hanging her from a tree by her intestines. _I wonder what I did this time._

Cassandra saw her looking around and explained for her. “They have decided your guilt because they need it. It makes more sense for them to have somebody to pin the blame on, a face they can recognise, instead of just a stranger. The people of Haven mourn our Most Holy, Divine Justinia, head of the Chantry.” Ah. _That_ was the woman who had been sitting at the head of the table. She had seemed nice. A pity. “The Conclave was hers. It was a chance for peace between mages and templars. She brought their leaders together, but now they are dead.” _And my friends along with them. Fuck. I’m not thinking about that._

Soldiers opened the gates ahead, staring at Talan as they did so. They weren’t as openly hostile, more just curious.

_Have my horns really been there this whole time? I never noticed them before. Wow!_

“We lash out, like the sky, but we must think beyond ourselves, as she did, until the Breach is sealed.” Cassandra was being oddly philosophical, and Talan was at a loss for words to respond with. She hoped the woman wouldn’t ask her anything similar. _I guess the Breach does that to you. Maybe I’ll start attending poetry readings now._

Still, she had a point; even if she had used more flowery language than Talan would have chosen. She preferred to be more direct – polite, but direct. There was no use trying to sound like Brother Genitivi or some upstart Orlesian.

Cassandra pulled out a dagger and Talan felt a second of sheer raw panic until she realised that the other woman was just cutting her bindings. _I’m going to have a heart attack, at this rate_. Still, she nodded her gratitude.

Cassandra just grunted in acknowledgement. “You’ll get a trial, but I can’t promise you anything more.” _And that_ , Talan thought, _was that_.

“Thank you, at least,” she told her, but Cassandra gave no reply until they had walked on further.

“It’s this way.” The woman had gone back to being a talking weapon again; all blunt and sharp-edged. At least they weren’t going back to feelings and daisy-chains anymore. It suited Talan just fine. Feelings... got in the way. Communication on the job was stripped to its bare necessities among the Valo-kas; camaraderie came afterwards.

Still, she couldn’t resist asking, “Where are you actually taking me?” She half expected to hear ‘this way’ in response again. It would have been a nice twist of humour, but probably lost on this woman.

“We need to test your mark,” the warrior said gruffly. _What, in case it doesn’t work?_ Then again, who knew what shit this thing could actually do. For all Talan or Cassandra knew, it might be purely ornamental, like the hearts she’d noticed engraved into the woman’s armour. _Nice touch_. “It needs to be something smaller than the Breach, of course, so we’re looking for a rift. Then, we shall see.”

“Fair enough.” The two women walked onwards without much further conversation. Still, there was one thought going over and over in Talan’s mind.

 _How do the humans stand this fucking cold out here?_ Maybe they deserved her respect after all.


	2. Does It Get Any Better?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Talan and Cassandra keep on walking and find themselves in a fight against a demon, with an unexpected result.....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, that summary was cheesy as hell. Forgive me.

Walking. All this endless walking. Talan was beginning to wonder if their destination even existed; Cassandra hadn’t enlightened her as to where they were actually travelling to. Maybe this desire for exercise was a typical human thing.

_Mad, the lot of them. Should’ve joined the Qun._

Well, at least the other woman respected their silence. Talan had met other humans who just could not stop talking, and quite frankly it put her on edge. She didn’t really like small talk at the best of times – it made her nervous, it was pointless to begin with – but Cassandra didn’t either. Talan wasn’t really sure what she believed in, but she offered up a prayer of gratitude to the Maker all the same.

They were coming up to a bridge now. Talan shivered – the Frostback Mountains were aptly named, and her prisoner’s garb wasn’t really warm enough for extended outdoor trips. She could have easily cast a small spell to warm her, but that would have alerted Cassandra to the fact she was travelling alongside a mage. An apostate, no less. Anything could happen afterwards – the woman could execute her on the spot, or find a templar to make her Tranquil (she shuddered at the thought), or do any number of other unpleasant things to her. She didn’t exactly trust the woman enough to open that can of worms in front of her just yet.

The bridge was covered in rubble and crates just lying around. It wasn’t that spectacular to look at, so Talan just ignored it and kept looking straight ahead.

Still, she was taken aback by all the people milling around. There were soldiers lying propped against the wall, clutching their stomachs and groaning as they stemmed the flow of blood; soldiers standing around, talking nervously; two Chantry people – she was never exactly sure whether they were male or female, because the robes made them look the same to her – were praying over a group of soldiers and reciting the Chant to passersby; a soldier was rocking by himself, looking dead-eyed; and oh boy, almost a _whole platoon’s worth_ of dead bodies. They were bound in cloth sacks with rope cords, some bloodied, some not. Talan counted roughly thirty-five, and winced.

Talan had never actually seen a dead body before. Well, as in one that didn’t belong to an enemy she’d just felled, and that was _different_. You didn’t really feel anything after looking at them, because they weren’t anyone you _cared about_.

Among the Tal-Vashoth settlement, they hadn’t wasted much time disposing of the dead, either – they were buried quickly, then prayers were said, and afterwards people generally drank away the remainder of their sadness for that day.

It could have been the Valo-kas she was looking at, for all she knew. It could have been _anyone_. The thought unnerved her more than she was willing to admit. At least she wasn’t looking into those lifeless eyes...

Cassandra noticed her discomfort and patted her back, awkwardly. “War is never a pretty sight,” she whispered. “And it never gets easier, but it does get.... _better_ , after a while.”

“Thank you,” Talan said. She _hated_ this – she was showing weakness in front of a near-stranger, and one who held her life in their hands at that. Still, Cassandra wasn’t judging her. She guessed she could be grudgingly grateful for that.

Two soldiers stood ahead of them, guarding a massive gate. It was tall enough for Talan to walk through without stooping, and still leave three extra feet above her. _Amazing._

“Open this gate!” Cassandra barked at them, and the men hastened to obey her. Talan wondered what they would find in the valley.

  


The path in front of them was crudely barricaded. It was easy enough to step around, and Talan noticed they had all been built very quickly. Speed, not skill. _These people must be desperate._

Three men ran up to them, breathless and pale from fright. One looked close to nausea.

“It’s the end of the world up there!” the middle one cried. “Maker preserve us, or I’m a dead man!” They hurried on their way down from the valley.

_What had they seen?_ It had to have been pretty awful up there. Was it legions of more corpses? _Maker preserve us, indeed._

Talan realised she was beginning to feel sorry for her captors. They could kill her in the blink of an eye, and some of the people she passed looked nervous enough around her to be easily persuaded to behead her then and there. _Great._ Still, it would have been wrong to feel otherwise.... wouldn’t it? She was just being a good person. There was nothing wrong with that, right?

_It is a weakness,_ she reminded herself. _I cannot get distracted. They cannot overpower me. They will not –_

She paused. There was a mage corpse, templar corpses, burning wagons.... This was _chaos._ No wonder those men had been so afraid. Talan would never admit it to herself, but she was starting to feel a similar way.

Cassandra and Talan reached the top of the hill. She was half debating whether to ask the woman if they could rest before walking onwards, but that would be weakness. You had to avoid weakness. It made you exploitable.

_Maker, I’m thinking like the Qun. That’s what I get for living with Tal-Vashoth, I suppose. It never really leaves you._

Her thoughts were interrupted by a blinding stab of pain in her hand. _Shit, shit, shit._ It felt like her skin was burning off, that her blood was boiling, and she was falling...

“Are you alright?” Cassandra asked, concerned. Talan was pulled up to her feet, a little more roughly than she would have preferred, but the intent was there.

“I...” She stopped. It was nearly impossible to describe.

“The pulses from whatever that thing is will be coming faster now, nearer the rifts. The Breach is growing bigger, so more of them are appearing. That mark seems to react to them, and we.... we don’t know why.” _That makes two of us, then._ “We’ll be facing demons, probably.” _Shit._ Cassandra looked apologetically at her.

“Just how did I survive the Conclave, then? How do I not remember any of it? And where _the fuck_ did this thing come from?” Talan gestured angrily to her glowing hand. She was practically screaming at the other woman. Cassandra’s eyes narrowed at her profanity, but she said nothing about it.

“I was told you stepped out of a rift before falling unconscious. A woman was behind you. No one knows who she was.” Cassandra sighed. “The whole valley was destroyed. Everything was laid to waste. The Temple of Sacred Ashes.... destroyed, too.” Talan sensed from her pained tone that the place meant something important to her. It was probably a Chantry area.

They carried on walking. More corpses lay on either side of their path – three mages, two templars – and there was a burning wagon and small fire. It had an eerie feel to it, and Talan grew more uncomfortable by the second. She sensed even Cassandra was beginning to bristle a little at their surroundings.

There was a bridge up ahead. Finding a last reserve of stamina, the two women jogged onwards. Cassandra was about to call something out to the soldiers at the end, but –

They were falling, and they were going to hit the ground. _Hard._

Talan and Cassandra landed on the frozen river below with an audible thump. The ice didn’t even crack.

“What just happened?” she asked, unable to keep a slight tremble from her voice.

“The rifts have been doing odd things,” Cassandra replied, equally shaken. “I’ve never seen that before. It must have sent out a small blast, which hit the bridge and then it collapsed....”

A blast of green light landed nearby. _Fade meteors?_ This was getting very serious, very quickly. Talan didn’t like it. As a mage, she was even more sensitive to this, and it just felt so _wrong_ that she wanted to scream. It was as if somebody was walking around without a head – it wasn’t meant to be this way, it _shouldn’t_ be this way, and it was happening all too fast....

Something was forming in the dying glow ahead of them. A shape, hard to make out at first, but gradually gathering its form. Something from the Fade... a demon. _Great. Shit. Fuck._

“Stay behind me!” Cassandra yelled, and Talan was only too happy to oblige. The other woman drew out her sword, readied her shield, and ran ahead to meet it.

Talan’s heart was beating far too fast to be safe. She wanted to just sit down and forget everything. Cassandra still didn’t know she was a mage, and she could help fight against that thing, Maker knows what, but then Cassandra would _know_. She would _react_. Talan couldn’t predict what would happen next, and she wasn’t willing to take that risk.

It was more frightening than that demon up ahead. Demons could be killed, but mistrust festered.

She found a crate nearby and slowly walked across the ice. It was surprisingly not slippery, and it felt very solid underneath her feet. Was this to do with the Fade, or the cold? Both? _Nothing was really certain anymore_ , she thought to herself, sighing.

Talan saw something glint in the light out of the corner of her eye. A staff. An actual staff. _I can use that. I can help Cassandra._

The temptation was too much to bear. She looked over at the other woman. Cassandra was handling herself pretty well, but she was fighting a creature of the Fade. She was getting bloodied too from its nails as they scratched deep cuts into her. Cassandra tried to dodge them while still fighting, but it was clearly tiring her out. Being a mage, Talan could give her an extra boost from the distance. She could help weaken the demon, distract it enough for Cassandra to put in some powerful strokes, and give her enough time to kill it.

_It can only help, right?_

She grabbed the staff – _I’m sorry_ – and moved a little closer, making sure she was in range. She gripped it with the glowing hand, let her other one reach out, and closed her eyes.

_Relax. Focus. You’ve got this._

She called forth a burst of flame, feeling the heat emanating from her palm, and sent it flying into the demon’s back. It screamed and turned to face her, slowly staggering forwards as it burned. Cassandra moved round to its back and gave a well-aimed strike to its shoulder.

The thing didn’t know where to focus anymore, so it looked to Talan, the stronger opponent. While Cassandra stabbed it viciously and repeatedly, sometimes bashing her shield against it, Talan shot bolts of lightning and bursts of fire directly into its stomach. It shrieked and howled as it tried to move closer to her and attack, but it was winded.

The demon was falling to its knees, now. It reached at Talan with a loose hand, eyes wide with fear and pain, trying to grab her, but the distance was too great. She cast one last bolt of lightning at it and looked to the warrior. She met her gaze and nodded.

Cassandra gave a grunt of effort and pounced. The demon’s head was severed from its shoulders and went flying for a short distance before vanishing in a puff of smoke. Its body similarly disappeared, and Cassandra instinctively backed away from it. She held her sword out, warily testing the space where it had been. When she was certain no more demons were going to appear, she held it to her side, still not sheathing it, and walked back over to where Talan stood.

She was glaring. _Shit._

“ _Drop your weapon._ ” Talan winced. Cassandra was angry with her, and if looks could kill, she would be dead twice over.

“I’m sorry,” she babbled, wincing at how pathetic she sounded. “It was just lying there, I wanted to help you, I tried making it weaker –”

“ **DROP. YOUR. WEAPON. MAGE.** ”

This would not end prettily. Cassandra could kill her, and she looked like she wanted to in that moment. There was only one course of action that could solve things peacefully.

“Alright,” Talan said slowly. “I’ll drop my staff.” She lowered it, moving it closer to the ground as she prepared to drop it, looking into Cassandra’s eyes as she did so, making sure the woman was clear she was not a threat.

Cassandra grunted. “ _Stop._ ” Talan nearly dropped the staff in surprise, and the other woman sighed. “You need a weapon to defend you in these parts. There are demons everywhere. You can weaken them more easily than I can.” She looked at her, blinking slowly. “I cannot always protect you, and I cannot leave you defenceless. I should remember you agreed to come willingly.”

She sheathed her sword with a sigh. “You should take these potions, too. They can help heal you for the coming fights. Maker knows there’ll be plenty enough here.”

Cassandra looked _exhausted._ “I can help you,” Talan said quickly. She hoped she wasn’t pushing this uneasy truce too far.

“You already have.” The woman’s tone was tense. “You were fighting that demon – ”

“No, I mean now. _Right now._ I can heal you.”

Cassandra stopped. She looked uneasy. _Remember, you’re a mage. She’s probably been told all her life to fear your kind. You’re a stranger, too._

Still, it hurt. It always did.

“I accept,” she said after a long pause. Talan nodded. Best to get this over with before she changed her mind.

She directed the other woman over to the crates where she found the staff. “Sit. It’s easier when you’re seated.” Cassandra grunted as she lowered herself down but made no argument. Her body was too strained to make the movements comfortable, and Talan pitied her. _Still, that’s what I’m here for._

“Alright,” she said, trying to sound as reassuring as possible. “Just sit still now. If it makes it easier, close your eyes.” Cassandra did so, letting out a shaky breath.

Talan focused her energies for a moment before she began. A pale blue light glowed from her hands, bright enough to hide the green Fade glow. She moved her hands over the woman’s body slowly, not touching her skin, and imagining her wounds being knitted together. Visualisation was _key._ If she lost concentration here, the results would get messy.

Cassandra’s body gradually healed under her magic. The blood seeped back underneath the cuts in a slow trickle until there was none left, and then the cuts slowly joined together. They faded into a small red scar before disappearing completely. There were no longer any cuts, as if they’d never existed. Her bruises similarly vanished.

Talan allowed herself a brief smile of pride. She loved healing – it was as if she was making the body new and whole again, and it was quite a relaxing process. Cassandra’s skin was now as soft and unmarred as a baby’s, save for the faded cut along her cheekbone. Talan hadn’t healed the pre-existing scars – it would have taken too long, and probably sapped all her energy without a great supply of lyrium – but she figured the woman wouldn’t be too bothered.

The blue light faded away, leaving only the ominous Fade glow on her hand. “All done. You can open your eyes now.”

Cassandra opened her eyes slowly, as if expecting Talan to strike her. She cautiously inspected her body, looking over every inch of skin, and her voice cracked as she turned to face the mage. “Thank you,” she said quietly. “It was.... surprisingly pleasant, and invigorating. You have my gratitude.” She laughed. “Although, next time you need not worry about leaving scars. I _am_ a warrior, after all.”

Talan laughed too. The trust was coming more easily between the two women, and that was good. It made the journey more pleasant, anyway.

“You’re welcome. You know, I _can_ fight, of course, but I prefer healing. It’s very calming, not like shooting fire. Or hitting things.”

The two women laughed again as they carried on walking slowly across the frozen ice. Talan smiled. It was a small, secret smile, hidden from the other woman’s view. Perhaps everything would be alright, now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really sorry for the long delay between chapters - I've been really busy with college stuff and uni applications, but it's all sorted now. _(Psst, your girl is going to uni in September.)_  
>  Again, I'm sorry for taking so long but I hope this chapter can make up for it!


	3. Onwards

Talan was surprised. It was very quiet for a valley that had supposedly been a battle scene not long ago. Maybe everyone had died.

(Or fled. That was a far more pleasant thought, at any rate.)

Still, she couldn't resist asking, "Where are all your men, Cassandra? We've been alone for a while now. I was expecting some to meet us by now, scouts at least."

Cassandra sighed, as if she'd been expecting the question but had wanted to delay it. "A large bulk of them went to defend the forward camp. Others went to gather supplies with the medics, or were stuck fighting at the edges. Little skirmishes break out here and there as the Breach casts rifts and demons spawn, like the one you saw earlier."

She shuddered, and Talan didn't blame her. Demons were no less a threat to an ordinary person as they were to a mage; it was just a different kind of threat altogether. "We needed a handful of the men to be able to spread out and anticipate rifts forming here and there - the most mobile ones, who weren't hampered by gear, and so on." She looked crestfallen. "Still, like you said, it is odd that we haven't bumped into any of them yet. We're on our own, then."

Now, Talan just felt positively guilty. The woman was clearly worried about the soldiers underneath her, and all she'd been able to do was stir up more anxiety.  _Great_.

They carried on in uneasy silence. Whatever rapport they had built earlier following the healing was rapidly flowing away, and it was all her fault. Her and her big mouth. Shokrakar had never stood for small talk between tasks, and now Talan saw why. She had never liked it much either, but now she was doing exactly that and somehow managing to make it all worse. 

All thoughts of guilt quickly passed when the two women saw a corpse lying further ahead. Cassandra ran over before Talan; in that moment, she was just a commander who had lost another soldier. Talan hung back, trying to give the woman space before they carried on, but Cassandra beckoned her over. Curious, she followed.

"I'm not sure who this is, but whoever it is had something interesting in their bag," she explained. She held up a flask, looking puzzled. "I'm not sure what this liquid is, but -"

Talan's eyes widened.  _She_ knew what that was, and Cassandra should be nowhere near it. "Please give it to me," she said quickly, trying not to sound panicked or intimidating. "You can't touch that, it's not safe -"

"Not safe?" Cassandra raised an eyebrow, but handed it over all the same. She didn't look as worried as Talan felt.

Talan breathed in and spoke more slowly. "It's called  _vitaar_ ," she explained, "and we use it in the Qun the same way you would use a helmet, expect it goes on the face, not the head. It... hardens our skin, but it's lethal for non-Qunari to touch." She sighed. "I'm sorry, Cassandra. I didn't mean to alarm you, I was just -"

"It's alright." Cassandra looked more amused than troubled, although Talan noticed how the smile didn't quite match her eyes. "You were just trying to look out for my safety." She shuddered slightly, and Talan pretended not to see the brief flash of fear that danced over her eyes.

It passed as quickly as it had appeared, but Talan found it hard to forget that sight. It had always wrenched her gut when people looked at her like that. The blood that flowed so freely at the hands of her kind three centuries past had scarcely begun to dry, and the old wounds were still easily opened at the slightest reminder. The  _vitaar_ 's dual protection for her and death sentence for Cassandra was but another sign of just how alien she was to the rest of Thedas, and it still hurt. It always would.

 

 

"You should probably put that on, then," the human said after the silence between them had begun to grow uncomfortable. Talan nodded, unscrewing the jar's lid and dipping her fingers in. The  _vitaar_ felt odd on her for some reason; cooler, more tingling than it had before. Maybe it was to do with that odd green mark on her hand, or even the Breach.  _Great. Fucking sky demons are ruining my armour, now_.

She gently slid her fingers over her face, carefully avoiding her nostrils, eyes and lips. The liquid was clear inside its jar, but as she applied it, using Cassandra's shield as an ersatz mirror, it came out yellow. Her skin was fairly pale anyway, and the yellow looked like a beacon of flame in comparison, bright and unsettling to look at. Even Cassandra blinked back surprise as Talan smoothed it evenly across her face.

After a moment, it was done. The jar was empty, although inside it had become slightly sticky. How a human soldier had managed to get his hands on a jar of  _vitaar_ \- and, equally impressively,  _not died_ in the process of transporting it to... wherever he was going - was astonishing, but that wasn't what she was so bothered about. This man's death had just saved her life.  _Oh, the irony_.

"All made up now," Talan said, smirking. She was trying to lighten the mood from earlier. "I'm afraid you look a little pale in comparison now, Cassandra. Literally." The other woman laughed, shooting her a curious look as she scanned her from forehead to chin. Perhaps it was working.

"Well, I cannot deny my own curiosity, and perhaps apprehension," she admitted. "I have never seen such... such a type of armour in all my days as a Seeker. I cannot tell if it is magic or -" She paused, swallowed and carried on. "It is clearly beyond my understanding, but I can certainly understand that it benefits you. Prisoner as you may be for now, it would not do to see you die on the journey to Haven because you were inadequately defended."

Talan nodded, and the two women carried on walking. The silence was far more companionable now.

At the top of a small hill, they found a patch of elfroot growing unscathed, along with some iron. The elfroot would definitely be needed for healing potions, which Talan explained she could brew (Cassandra gave a look of immense gratitude and relief), and the iron could come in handy at some point, she reckoned. It certainly couldn't hurt to take it, seeing as it was just lying there.

She had to admit, the mountains were pretty spectacular. They certainly made for an awe-inspiring sight, with their tall peaks reaching up to pierce the very surface of the sky, covered in heavy layers of snow. All the local water was frozen over, sometimes with intricate swirls of frost, and even the trees were tall and impressive.

Talan suddenly wished she had been able to see more of Ferelden. Aside from hunts with the band and tasks Shokrakar had set them as a merc group, she had never really ventured out of the Qunari settlement they'd made on the outskirts of a village that she couldn't remember the name of. The local humans and elves had tolerated them uneasily - they were happy enough to barter and trade supplies, but the horns were always the first thing they noticed, not the coins. Well, that and the fact that her people stood a good foot or two above the tallest man she'd met. All in all, she'd preferred to stay at home with her family and the other Vashoth children, shying away from the glances and unspoken questions.

It was better that way.

Cassandra was looking at her out of the corner of her eye. Talan didn't need to see it - she could _feel_ it, and she knew long in advance as to when she would turn away, only to look back again.

Perhaps a human would ask her questions this time around. They could get to the root of their cultural differences, settle them and carry on their merry lives, all for the better; friends all around, as it were. The Qunari wouldn't need to be constantly on their guard: they could relax, laugh, drink with the locals. She'd even noticed the longing glances Taarlok had earnt from the locals, men and women alike. Had he seen the way they looked at him? Had he felt the same way?

It was too late now. The dead didn't answer questions, and Talan wasn't sure if she'd get a pleasant answer.

She still saw Cassandra looking. Looking, not opening her mouth. There were no questions from her, either. Talan just sighed to herself. There was no use dwelling on it, she thought to herself. It didn't matter at all.

 She tried so hard to convince herself of that as they carried on to the forward camp.

 

 

The demons came out of nowhere while they stood at the crest of the hill, as they seemed to be wont to do now. Talan and Cassandra both nodded, and then the human had her sword unsheathed and shield in hand, while Talan readied her staff and focused. 

"If you can weaken them from up here on this hill, I can charge at them and defeat them while expending less energy," Cassandra said, surveying the shades approaching them across the frozen river. It was unnerving how silently they glided towards the hill. The only sound they made was a hoarse wail, like trying to speak while somebody clamped down around your throat and squeezed. The closest one had its arms outstretched, as if to draw them into a loving embrace.

"Alright." The two women exchanged a look, and then Cassandra charged down the hill. Talan cast a bolt of lightning into its stomach as Cassandra raised her sword and lowered it, cutting from its shoulder blade to its hip. The demon didn't bleed, only spewed out a cloud of black smoke, but it let out a screech of pain all the same. 

The bolt of lightning zigzagged across the river, hitting the demons in turn. They all gave similar wails on impact and gave her what she could only assume would have been a look of fury, had they had anything resembling a face. Instead, they decided en masse to try and defeat this dangerous foe, swarming towards her like a possessed herd.

" _Fuck_ ," Cassandra yelled through gritted teeth as she danced among them, aiming brutal strikes in an attempt to slow their passage. The demons ignored her, reacting mostly to when Talan cast her spells. It seemed to incense them for some reason.

They were getting closer, and there was only one thing Talan could think of in her panicked state. She was getting desperate.  _What if Cassandra gets hurt?_ She would have to consider that possibility later; there was definitely no time for worries and regrets right now.

" _Cassandra, jump to the left! Get out of the way!_ " she yelled as loudly as she could, her voice carrying over the heavy silence around her. Talan wasn't even sure if the woman had heard her until she grunted and jumped.

_Now_.

She let out a huge ball of pure fire, roaring and spreading rapidly towards the demons. It billowed out, unfurling as the demons swayed in its midst. For a second, it looked like a dance; a dance that became a series of jagged movements accompanied by a collective screech so high-pitched that Talan winced. 

_Focus_.

She  _felt_ the fire with her mind, reaching out for it with her hand until they were connected, and urged it to course around in a circle. The demons were trapped - they couldn't escape the thick flames, and each movement they made only caused them to burn harder. 

Talan clenched her fist. The effort of it brought a sheen of sweat to her face, but she didn't notice or care. The flames shot up, increasing in both height and heat, sending out a thick cloud of deep black smoke while the demons intensified their shrill wail. They flailed, helpless, while Cassandra looked on from a safe distance, both alarmed and amazed.

She unclenched it, and the flames spread out in a  _boom_ , circling out like a ripple in water, before disappearing. The demon corpses fell to the floor unsteadily before vapourising in their own clouds of black smoke. It was done.

Cassandra ran back up to her, taking two steps at a time. "Are you alright?" she asked, concerned. Talan tried to speak, but her throat was suddenly sore. She shook her head.

"You should sit down, rest. It isn't good that you continue to tire yourself out so much and with such short time in between."

"Tell that to the demons," Talan croaked, and Cassandra managed a wry smile.

"You have a point. Plus, your efforts have saved  _both_ our lives, for which I am very grateful. Still, I would rather you did not exhaust yourself in a day's work. We can sit here for a while and recuperate before we carry on."

Talan nodded. It seemed like a good idea, and she couldn't argue that it would be a blessed relief to just  _rest_. Her whole body ached from the force of that spell; perhaps she  _was_ overdoing it.

Cassandra gently guided her to a log, and the two women slowly sat down on it. They surveyed the landscape in silence; watching; waiting; readying themselves for whatever they might find next.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm //really// sorry for the delay in updating this! I've been really busy lately what with my birthday on the 1st, an 8 day trip the week after (not just a holiday, I assure you - there was definitely lots of work involved xD) and a heart attack's worth o shit from college, so I've barely had any free time to just write. *sighs*  
> Anyway, if you're curious, [this](http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/dragonage/images/6/63/Intense_Deathroot_Vitaar.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/350?cb=20141215130600) is the vitaar I was talking about for Talan, plus info [here](http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Intense_Deathroot_Vitaar) from the wiki. I think it's technically supposed to be rare in game, but because it looked kind of cool I decided to ignore that. xD  
> Again, I'm sorry for the long breaks between chapters (we haven't even met Solas and Varric yet yikes) and I promise I'll try not to GRRM this whole story! xD

**Author's Note:**

>  **Translations and explanations**  
>  * Shokrakar, Katoh, Taarlok, etc - these are all the names from the Wiki for [the members of Adaar's company](http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Valo-Kas#Known_members)  
> * _Valo-kas_ \- Qunlat term for "greatsword"; Adaar's mercenary band  
>  * _Vashedan_ \- Qunlat for "shit", "crap", etc  
>  * _Kadan_ \- Qunlat for "where the heart lies"; can be used romantically or platonically: Talan means it here in the sense that they are all very close in terms of trust and intimacy, and that outside Qunlat, there is no equivalent. From the Dragon Age wiki:
>
>>  
>> 
>> _An all-purpose word for a "person one cares about," including colleagues, friends and loved ones._  
> 
> 
> * _Ben-Hassrath_ \- Qunlat for "heart of many"; they enforce Qunari law as spies, "re-educators", etc  
>  * _Saarebas_ \- Qunlat for "dangerous thing"; how the Qunari refer to their mages (seeing as the Qun strives for  utmost control in its subjects, having the existence of mages, who could theoretically get possessed and/or use blood magic, etc, is a great threat; hence [the _very_ strict control](http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Arvaarad) over them  
>  * _Tal-Vashoth_ and _Vashoth_ \- Qunlat for "the _true_ grey ones" and "the grey ones" respectively; the first term applies to those who have left the Qun and rejected its teachings, and the second to the children of Tal-Vashoth (ie: those who were never born under the Qun)  
>  * _Viddathari_ \- someone who has converted to the Qun  
>  I hope you enjoyed reading this and will continue! Please leave comments (and constructive feedback) and I hope you'll like the rest of the story!


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